The Turnstile

Paul Heyman is never shy, even when it comes to discussing a rare blunder doing the one thing he’s known for the most — controlling the crowd via the microphone.

The self-proclaimed advocate of Brock Lesnar had the task of playing a “heel” at the Target Center in Minneapolis in order to promote this Sunday’s WWE “Survivor Series” match against the returning Goldberg, just minutes from where Lesnar wrestled in college and won the 2000 NCAA Heavyweight championship at the University of Minnesota.

How did it go?

Let’s just say the crowd had no interest in booing the “Beast” they’ve adopted as one of their own for the last 16 years, as Lesnar nearly cracked a brief smile in the ring at the chants of “Suplex City.”

“I failed at the task,” Heyman told Yahoo Sports. “Was it an impossible task? Absolutely. But that’s why I’m in the position I’m in.”

It’s a position that Heyman has been in for the better part of three decades across three companies (World Championship Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling, WWE) and he’s showing no signs of slowing down, even in defeat.

It’s the greatest story never told, at least that’s what legendary director Martin Scorsese has said.

Vinny Pazienza, a five-time world champion boxer in three different weight divisions, suffered a broken neck in a car accident that required him to make a decision: Choose spinal fusion surgery that would end his boxing career but guarantee he could walk again or opt for a medieval-like halo literally screwed into his skull that would allow his body to heal naturally but only if he could avoid banging into anything for six months.

Pazienza chose the halo.

While there might be better sports stories never told – sports documentary makers are routinely attempting to make the case on all platforms – it is hard to image a better sports comeback story.

When Ben Younger was approached about possibly directing a movie chronicling Pazienza’s journey, he was moved by the boxer’s story. But Younger spot-checked his instincts by consulting the man who directed arguably the greatest boxing movie of all time in “Raging Bull.”

Scorsese, who had never before heard Pazienza’s story, reviewed the pitch and was so impressed he signed on to be an executive producer.

Did you go out to vote on #ElectionDay? You weren’t alone. Athletes and others from around the sports world were right there with you, and documented it on social media, including pitcher Tom Koehler, who honored former Marlins teammate Jose Fernandez, with his vote.

HBO has canceled Bill Simmons’ sports/culture talk show “Any Given Wednesday” after a single season of declining ratings. The final episode will air Nov. 9.

“Any Given Wednesday” featured Simmons, the best-known sportswriter of the internet era, in a variety of formats, from stand-up monologues to skits to longform interviews. The show kicked off with a profane bang, as Ben Affleck unleashed a curse-filled rant for the ages defending Tom Brady against the NFL, Roger Goodell and pretty much everyone on Earth:

The show would never hit those viral heights again, and after a brief ratings bump, began a precipitous slide downward. The show improved on its lead-in only twice in its run, and bottomed out last week with an estimated 82,000 viewers, a 75 percent drop from its high-water mark:

The Chicago Cubs and their fans are bathing in the warm glow of well-deserved victory right now, and will be for quite some time. Winning the first world championship in more than a century will do that for you. But what about the other team in the World Series? How will history recall the Cleveland Indians, and how will the players deal with the fact that victory was within their grasp but they couldn’t close the deal?

Every winner’s story is the same, but every loser suffers alone, and in often heartbreaking ways. That’s the premise of “Losing Isn’t Everything,” a new collection of interviews by Fox Sports’ Curt Menefee and former Yahoo Sports editor Michael Arkush. Over the course of 15 chapters, the duo interviewed some of the most notable “losers” in sports history, seeking to determine how exactly they fell short, how they handled their pain in the immediate aftermath of the loss, and how they’re doing today.

In what can only be described as a come-from-behind victory on the scale of Reagan over Carter, Peyton Manning rallied in the closing hours to catch and ultimately zip by Bill Belichick and into the Final 4 of the Yahoo Sports Presidential Bracket: Sports Edition.

Manning is joined by Hank Aaron, Michael Jordan and Michael Phelps, a quartet of heavyweights, each of whom represent the best of the best from their respective disciplines.

We’re about to find out who America will choose. Voting is officially open. And remember to vote early and vote often.

We started with 64 candidates, and now we’re down to eight in Yahoo Sports’ Presidential Bracket: Sports Edition.

The questions you, the voters, must now answer are becoming clearer: Do you trust The Hoody in the White House? Do you favor a strategist (Coach K) over an executor (MJ)? Has Michael Phelps won enough gold medals to earn your vote? And are you that smitten with Ken Griffey Jr.’s killer smile?